Page 76 of Brock’s Mate

In the basement of Brock’s safe house, he realized. Turned out it was not so safe, ironically. He’d been captured. Drugged. But he had vague memories of his mind drifting in and out…

Hearing people talk. Hearing Brock, and Desi, and Brandon. Was that part of a dream?

Maybe not. He could feel something in his hand—some kind of vial.

He extended his senses. There was a guard down here with him, across the room. He could hear him breathing, sense his heartbeat.

Slowly, so as not to attract attention, he turned his head and slitted his eyes. The guard wasn’t watching him; he looked bored. DB turned his head back the other way, moved his hand slowly toward his mouth.

He didn’t know who had given him this vial, but it probably wasn’t the bad guys. They would have just poured it down his throat or shot him up with it, like the other drugs.

Anyway, he had to take the chance.

Because they’d taken away his magic. He needed it back, so he could get the hell out of here.

He flicked the top off the vial and tipped the contents into his mouth. Fuck on a stick, that was nasty stuff.

He felt it working inside him, though. Felt it starting to break down the blocks on his powers.

Then he heard Brandon’s voice, amplified super-loud, telling the sorcerer to stop whatever he was doing to Brock.

Well, hell. He couldn’t wait for his powers to come back.

Sneaking another peek at the guard, who was looking at his phone, DB stretched out his hand and Changed it to a claw, then back. At least that was working.

Then he took a deep breath. Time for a seizure.

He tensed all his muscles at once, bowing his body up in an arch, and then dropped down and began shaking and gurgling in his throat.

He heard the guard drop his phone and run over to the cell, fumbling as he put in the code to unlock it. He knelt down by the mattress, trying to hold DB down.

DB shot his hand up, Changed it, and closed it around the guard’s neck, his talons making deep gouges. The guard started making the same gurgling noises he’d made, only these weren’t fake. He clawed at DB’s talons.

DB sat up, head-butting the guard, and increased pressure on his carotid until he passed out. Then he got up, dusting himself off. He might be little, but dragons were strong as fuck—even small ones.

People always forgot that.

He grabbed the guard’s weapons, slinging the assault rifle over his shoulder, and then gagged him and locked him in the cell. Then he put his dragon fist through the keypad, checked the cell door again, and sneaked up the stairs.

Brock was still standing; he didn’t know how. He could see Brandon and the others out of the corner of his eye, and knew that it was all they could do not to jump in, not to do something to protect him.

It went against all their instincts.

And Desi and her wolf were going nuts on the other side of the porch.

He heard the Darkwing Dragon in his mind again.

His knees were buckling for real. Desi was yelling, and one of the guards hit her. He could feel the rage gathering inside her, a huge dark wave.

Desi. No.

Suddenly it burst out through her skin, and the guards holding her screamed in agony. The sorcerer turned, stopping his attack on Brock.

And turning it towards Desi.

No. If he pushed more pain into her now, her defenses would break for real. The darkness would engulf her.

Brock felt his wolf take over, and they leaped at the sorcerer, his jaws closing around the fucker’s arm.